First Winter Quattro Experience

[Antti Piirainen]

Huw Powell wrote:

>> But aren't SUV owners officially morons who can't drive?
> 
> Not any more than the rest of us...
> 
> Around here (NH) what I usually see on the side of the road, stuck, in 
> the first good storm (which just started!) each year, are big 4wd 
> vehicles and... Audis.  People who forgot that being able to go better 
> than they could with 2wd doesn't mean they can stop (or steer) and better.

Okay, it must be regional, then. Around here we have Audis pulling SUVs 
out of ditches :). No, seriously, people are constantly reminding how 
4WD cars won't stop any better than 2WDs. They often forget a car 
doesn't stop *any worse* just because it has four driveshafts.

Even though snow tyres are mandatory here due to legislation (but I 
guess this has been discussed over and over again), and even though snow 
and ice in the winter are a certainty, not an oddity, we still have our 
share of people - with any type of running gear - crashing into snowy 
banks and into each other. Some of them stubbornly stick to normal tyres 
until they can't move anywhere, and some of the others, well, I guess 
they drive their cars too carefully, all year round.

If I get the opportunity, I like to keep myself constantly in a very 
mild four-wheel drift - not fishtailing - in city speeds, below 40 mph. 
This gives a very accurate sense of the road below. You can instantly 
feel whether you have more or less traction because of (invisible) 
changes on the surface. In higher speeds and on larger roads you don't 
have that advantage, you simply have to wait till there's no one near 
your rear end and brake hard to check how slippery it is.

Aside from _understeering_ my RWD off the road at 15 mph very soon after 
getting my license, this is my tenth winter behind the wheel, and I've 
never been close to being the cause of an accident. I plan to keep it 
that way, by knowing what to expect. :)

The biggest risk my quattro poses to other people is the seemingly 
tremendous frustration of being left behind when I accelerate normally 
away from the traffic lights. No flooring the pedal, no locking the 
diffs, no racing in my mind at all. I've seen many FWD and RWD drivers 
come past me at ridiculous speeds after getting their cars on the move. 
These guys will even do 55 on an icy suburban street *near an elementary 
school*!

-- 
Antti Piirainen
87 Cq